Professional Sales News

News - New Sales Director for NEC

The National Exhibition Centre (NEC) has announced the appointment of well known and widely respected exhibition man, Stephen Richards, as its new Venue Sales Director. Stephen, an independent organiser of 15 years, is currently working as a Consultant Event Director at UBM and will join the NEC team after completing a new launch for the organiser.

As a past co-owner of Waypoint Exhibitions Ltd, Consultant Event Director at Reed Exhibitions and Director at Blenheim Exhibitions, Stephen is no stranger to the industry, boasting a career in the industry spanning 25 years.

“We’re delighted to announce the appointment of Stephen Richards”, said Kathryn James, Managing Director of the NEC, “With his skills, breadth and depth of industry knowledge, alongside already well established relationships with many of our clients, means he’s in a great position to continue driving NEC sales forward and putting the customer at the heart of what we do.”

“The NEC is the heartbeat of the UK’s events industry,” said Stephen, “after making the decision to change from the organiser to the venue side, the only place I wanted to work was the NEC – I’m absolutely thrilled to have the opportunity to be part of a fantastic team that is really going places.

Prior to entering the exhibition industry Stephen held a number of sales management positions in retail, FMCG and publishing. It was Exclusively Exhibitions that kick started his career in the events industry and here he made his mark launching niche business-to-business exhibitions and helped create a small portfolio of niche events in the retail sector.